The Hard Problem is not Invariant : Consciousness and Relational Emergence

This article proposes a reformulation of the "hard problem" of consciousness within the framework of contemporary approaches to relational quantum gravity and models of spacetime emergence. We argue that the hard problem is not invariant across ontological frameworks: the explanatory difficulty associated with consciousness depends on the framework in which the relationship between physical description and phenomenal description is formulated. Within a classical spacetime framework, consciousness appears as a phenomenon requiring additional explanation. Within a pre-geometric relational framework modeled as a dynamic graph, the physical and the phenomenal become two modes of access to a single underlying structure. Consciousness is associated therein with a self-referential coherence measured by an index of probabilistic non-decomposability. This approach dissolves the problem through a change of ontological level, without falling into either panpsychism or classical reduction.